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Three distinct product areas exist for banks — deposit gathering, customer services and loans. Up until now loans have scarcely been marketed. If they have, they have not been viewed in the context of what would create an optimal product mix. Yet a bank's loan mix is a major portion of its product mix and has the same dimensions of width, breadth and consistency as any other product line. It appears that a significant amount of difficulty in developing effective loan mix strategies has been due to the lack of a system to predetermine loan quality objectively. Management's attitude towards risk, the type of community and future economic conditions all play major roles in determining a suitable loan mix. Loan mix strategy should begin with a recognition of attainable goals and end with a defined programme to co‐ordinate the efforts of marketing staff and the loan department. The optimal loan mix will suit customer needs and return the desired levels of profits.

Viewing customers on the basis of age groupings is valuable in terms of product development, promotion and evaluation of delivery systems. The close association between customer age and product usage suggests a life cycle rather than a strict segmentation approach to marketing. A bank must realise that financial needs change as a customer matures, and anticipate and provide for these changing needs in order to build a solid customer base. Research into the users of 31 retail banks in a Midwestern US state indicates that there is a greater chance of success in promoting certain products to a particular age group, and that product usage tends to support the assumption that user age is a primary factor in bank product selection.

Currently, more than 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are fighting as soldiers with government armed forces and armed opposition groups in more than thirty countries worldwide. In more than eighty-five countries, hundreds of thousands more under-eighteens have been recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a wide variety of non-state armed groups. Millions of children worldwide receive military training and indoctrination in youth movements and schools. While most child soldiers are aged between fifteen and eighteen, the youngest age reported is seven (UN Chronicle, Winter 2000).

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the learning orientation of export functions affects their growth performance.

A mail survey of 354 exporters was conducted, and the data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Results show that the link between response to export information and export growth is quadratic (U‐shaped), and that this relationship is moderated by use of export memory. Export memory itself was found to be beneficial to export growth when responsiveness to export information is low, but detrimental under high levels of export information responsiveness. In turn, response to export information is driven by export information acquisition and distribution, as well as by the management of mental export models. Export memory use is also enhanced by the latter and the integration of export information within organizational systems.

The authors examine learning orientation in the context of export functions for the first time, and in doing so, uncover specific relationships that export learning constructs have with the growth performance of export firms. In addition, most of the organizational learning literature focuses on the information‐processing behaviors of firms (e.g. acquisition, dissemination, use), overlooking the important discipline‐based constructs such as the management of mental models. The authors show how important the challenging of mental export models is for maximizing response to export information and use of export memory.

High levels of (human and financial) investment in export information processing are important for export growth. Export memory use should be encouraged, but only to confirm or triangulate new information. In addition, export staff should be formally trained in challenging the preconceptions they may have developed about their export markets.

This study is the first to consider the learning orientation of export functions, and to do so from a holistic (both information processing‐ and discipline‐based) perspective.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the interaction of the social media manager’s customer orientation and the service climate perceived by supervisors, on the customer’s perception of brand authenticity and, through it, on the willingness to pay a price premium.

This study uses triadic data from 200 social media followers, 20 social media managers and 20 supervisors from a range of industries.

The findings show that the customer orientation of the brand social media managers interacts with their work context to influence social media followers’ perceptions of brand authenticity, and ultimately, their willingness to pay a premium price. Finally, product involvement moderates the relationship between brand authenticity and willingness to pay a premium price.

This study shows how and when the disposition of brand social media managers affects the attitudes and intentions of the social media followers. Further research should continue this novel line of research and explore in greater depth the impact of social media managers and their environments.

Social media managers’ values should fit those of their organization. This organization-person fit reflects on social media and improves social media followers’ perceptions of brand authenticity and, consequently, their willingness to pay a premium price.

Leveraging participation in social media is currently a key issue for firms. However, the internal determinants of successful social media usage have received limited attention from researchers. Therefore, this research contributes to the social media literature by suggesting the need to consider the characteristics of social media managers and their context to promote the outcomes of social media usage, specifically brand authenticity and willingness to pay a premium price.

This paper aims to identify modern construction techniques for affordable housing, such as prefabrication and interlocking systems, that can save time and cost while also providing long-term sustainable benefits that are desperately needed in today's construction industry.

The need for housing is growing worldwide, but traditional construction cannot cater to the demand due to insufficient time. There should be some paradigm shift in the construction industry to supply housing to society. This paper presented a state-of-the-art review of modern construction techniques practiced worldwide and their advantages in affordable housing construction by conducting a systematic literature review and applying the backward snowball technique. The paper reviews modern prefabrication techniques and interlocking systems such as modular construction, formwork systems, light gauge steel/cold form steel construction and sandwich panel construction, which have been globally well practiced. It was understood from the overview that modular construction, including modular steel construction and precast concrete construction, could reduce time and costs efficiently. Further enhancement in the quality was also noticed. Besides, it was observed that light gauge steel construction is a modern phase of steel that eases construction execution efficiently. Modern formwork systems such as Mivan (Aluminium Formwork) have been reported for their minimum construction time, which leads to faster construction than traditional formwork. However, the cost is subjected to the repetitions of the formwork. An interlocking system is an innovative approach to construction that uses bricks made of sustainable materials such as earth that conserve time and cost.

The study finds that the prefabrication techniques and interlocking system have a lot of unique attributes that can enable the modern construction sector to flourish. The study summarizes modern construction techniques that can save time and cost, enhancing the sustainability of construction practices, which is the need of the Indian construction industry in particular.

This study is limited to identifying specific modern construction techniques for time and cost savings, lean concepts and sustainability which are being practiced worldwide.

Modern formwork systems such as Mivan (Aluminium Formwork) have been reported for their minimum construction time which leads to faster construction than traditional formwork.

The need for housing is growing rapidly all over the world, but traditional construction cannot cater to the need due to insufficient time. There should be some paradigm shift in the construction industry to supply housing to society.

This study is unique in identifying specific modern construction techniques for time and cost savings, lean concepts and sustainability which are being practiced worldwide.

Edible flowers have traditionally been consumed for their nutritional and medicinal properties. Aponogeton distachyos is an aquatic flowering plant native to the Western Cape of South Africa (SA) that used to be a wild plant gathered during the winter months, but it is now considered to be underutilised and endangered. This study aims at gaining insights from different stakeholders into the activities across the plant value chain and their impact on the consumption of Aponogeton distachyos.

The study methodology involved the identification of different stakeholders in the plant value chain and conducting qualitative in-depth interviews during the data collection. Twelve study participants were selected via purposive sampling and interviewed using semi-structured interviews (face-to-face, telephone and online).

Nostalgic connection of the flower with local culture and heritage and its unique taste and flavour are key consumption drivers. Promotional and educational efforts by food advocates and at public events help raise consumer awareness, which is generally lacking. Limited geographic and seasonal availability, perishability, price and quality issues emerged, together with low awareness, as main barriers to more frequent and geographically spread consumption.

Although wild edible flowers have been consumed for centuries, there has been little attention to their nutritional value and journey to their final consumers. The present study identifies important challenges emanating at different stages of the food value chain to consumption of one particular neglected and underutilised plant, with certain implications for people's dietary quality, environmental sustainability and biodiversity of natural resources beyond Aponogeton distachyos and SA.

(1)Aponogeton distachyos is a neglected and underutilised aquatic flowering plant native to the Western Cape of South Africa (SA). (2)The plant offers benefits related to people's dietary quality, environmental sustainability and biodiversity of natural resources. (3)Flower's nostalgic connection with local culture and heritage emerge as a key consumption driver. (4)Its unique taste and flavour highly appeal to consumers. (5)Low awareness, limited availability, price and quality are main consumption barriers. (6)There is largely unexploited public policy potential for supporting dietary diversity through growing edible flowers.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically apply theory of organisational routines to standardised care pathways. The explanatory power of routines is used to address open questions in the care pathway literature about their coordinating and organising role, the way they change and can be replicated, the way they are influenced by the organisation and the way they influence health care professionals.

Theory of routines is systematically applied to care pathways in order to develop theoretically derived propositions.

Care pathways mirror routines by being recurrent, collective and embedded and specific to an organisation. In particular, care pathways resemble standard operating procedures that can give rise to recurrent collective action patterns. In all, 11 propositions related to five categories are proposed by building on these insights: care pathways and coordination, change, replication, the organisation and health care professionals.

The paper is conceptual and uses care pathways as illustrative instances of hospital routines. The propositions provide a starting point for empirical research.

The analysis highlights implications that health care professionals and managers have to consider in relation to coordination, change, replication, the way the organisation influences care pathways and the way care pathways influence health care professionals.

Theory on organisational routines offers fundamental, yet unexplored, insights into hospital processes, including in particular care coordination.